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Thursday, 31 May 2012

Why do Girls Love Gin so Much (and why does everyone need to know)?

I saw a blog recently about stuff girls like and I got to think specifically about food and drink that girls just love making their own. Like gin, for example. Why the hell is it now such a complete ladies' thing? How is it cool, or original, or funny, to put 'I <3 gin' in your Twitter bio? Or even more 'random', just put 'gin'. Even better, instagram a picture of your gin and tonic and with the caption #ginoclock. Because you're such a known booze-guzzler, it doesn't even need an explanation. It almost seems like a badge of honour to highlight how much you drink.

Why gin, though? Because it's very English, nostalgic, old fashioned and it fits in perfectly with that vintage 'look' that so many women love. Particularly mothers, I notice. They've got it so hard so they remind the world that they NEED a drink. I am so hard done by so I MUST have a gin & tonic. It's almost replaced the Mother's Little Helper from the Rolling Stones generation.

How have women just claimed ownership of this drink? It is seen as a fairly effeminate thing. Is that all they drink? But it is difficult: If you are a woman and you put say, whiskey on your profile, you might be seen as a bit manly, same goes for beer. If you put vodka, you risk seeming a bit Essex-y, same with rum. If you put tequila, you're seen as a bit too hardcore, perhaps. Champagne, you're seen as a Kensington blonde or someone who hangs around launch parties. If you drink cocktails constantly, someone who is a little frivolous. So one thing that we've determined is that it's socially acceptable to drink gin, you will not seem trashy or like an alcoholic because you can drink it in the afternoon, over a slice of cake (something ELSE which girls seem to have exclusive enjoying rights over!).

Perhaps it is because sweeter things are associated with women: gin smells nice and fragrant and is made with juniper berries, so it is in that respect, similar to the 'alcopops' that are so closely associated with girls. Not like whiskey, which smells like... burnt wood.Which in itself, is even more totally baffling. How has society worked out that girls' tastebuds are any different to men's, and how has it conditioned it so? A lot of women DO like sweet things, but then so do a lot of men. Have they been socially conditioned into liking sweet things more than savoury? 'Shit, I've got really bad period pains, I read in a magazine it's good for that.' Before they know it, they're on a 20-a-day habit (Cadbury Fingers, that is). So they are more drawn to cocktails and wine as opposed to beer, and so in public, men are ridiculed by their friends for drinking a cosmopolitan or even a WKD. I'm not even going to go into the ridiculousness of being 'manly' and liking football, pork scratchings and ale.

Personally, I would always choose savoury over sweet every time and it's obviously a massive generalisation, but my point is that we don't have to prove we're girls by professing our adoration for gin and brownies and men don't need to prove they're men by ordering steak and drinking pints.

6 comments:

I don't like gin or cake but you are totally right here: it DOES seem to be something that woman just love to profess their adoration for. I like whiskey and crisps but neither of them are in my profile - diet coke is, however. (True love!)

An almost ridiculous amount of girls follow me on Twitter that put "tea drinker" "tea obsessive forever" "I <3 tea!" "TEA TEA TEA" in their bio, too. I don't like tea, either, so maybe I'm just bitter but it seems incredibly odd to be shouting excitedly about something that 95% of English people drink. Weird, no? I'm thinking about putting how much I love drinking water in my bio. I LOVE OXYGEN.